O2 has revamped its pay monthly mobile phone package structure, adding a one-year contract option for existing customers.
O2 already offers a 12-month contract, but it only applies to Sim-only deals - what you'd choose if you decide to keep your current phone when your existing contract ends.
O2 Pay Monthly March 2011
The new …

If you go up to £25 on 3 you get 2,000min + 5,000 txt + inf data with tethering. From what I've heard 3's customer service is terrible. If you're close to an Apple store you can bypass that if you're an iPhone user. Regardless, O2 should consider reviewing their prices.

I'm with Vodafone right now, they offered a better package than Orange at the time and their tethering bundle is pretty reasonable if you're an occasional user. I'd have tried 3 but I couldn't get past all the horror stories I'd heard about them.

Good points...

Phone subsidy?

These figures are just weird... I always imagined (and I'm sure that's why the phone companies say they do it) that part of the reason for higher prices on phone-included tariffs is to recoup the subsidy on the price of the phone.

That's fine, and reasonable. But on the 600 and 900 minute deals here, O2 expects you to pay £5 or £5.50 extra for the privilege of already owning your own phone, if you won't want to tie in to a 12 month contract.

So what exactly are they subsidising if you agree to a 12 month contract? A fiver seems a pretty hefty amount (around 25% on that 600 minute deal) to charge as a premium for wanting a month to month package.

Separating data from voice

Separating data from voice is going to be really useful for heavy data users who get pulled onto a high tariff and don't really use all the data - you can take out a 50 min tariff and put 1GB on it for £20pcm/£30pcm (depending whether you want a phone or not)

£3 for 100MB???

Clarification

Article seems to suggest you get no data access at all on the basic tariffs, which isn't true: you get metered data usage with the cost capped at £1 a day. Worth being aware of for those who only occasionally need/want access to t'internet via the phone.

Promising

So they've finally realised that if a customer pays for 500MB data, it makes no real difference whether they view the results on a phone or an attached laptop. Let's hope the others will follow suit, or I might be tempted to move to O2 at my next renewal.

What a joke ...

O2 tariffs

I've been on a 12 month tariff with o2 for ages - since analog - it cost me about £25/YEAR (rebate for not wanting a free upgrade gets it down that low). Only voice though, and had to pay for texts. Suited me though.

Just had a letter saying that tariff no longer exists so I need to go on to their new tariff at £10/month. That's nearly £100/yr more than I paid previously. For the same service. Thanks o2.

Customer relations shambles

I've spent a week trying to change to a tariff that includes tethering. The shop says yes you can change from a 30 ppm tariff to the 32ppm tariff with the separate data bolt on. They cant change it however. Then the call centre says no, then an email enquiry says pay another 7.50 as per the old tariff.

Subsequent enquiry gets the response yes that's fine then when asked to go ahead I'm told you cant change to a cheaper tariff because the non-data portion is 26ppm.

All I want to do is to pay 2 quid a month extra for something I can already do if I jailbreak the blasted thing!